PixelatedPICK: Awesome Bill Rides Again

Bill Elliott will pilot the number 23 car at Road America.

In 1983, Bill Elliott scored his first NASCAR Cup Series victory, at the now defunct and long buried road course, Riverside International Raceway. It was the first of 44 wins in a career spanning over four decades.

He won the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Championship and has two Daytona 500 victories plus a Brickyard 400 to his credit. Oh, by the way, he won the Winston Million in 1985 with victories at Daytona, Talladega and Darlington.

Awesome Bill from Dawsonville is also the fastest driver to ever qualify for a NASCAR race, after hitting over 212 mph at Talladega in 1987.

Elliott stepped away from full time racing following the 2003 season but has continued to dabble with part time entries in the Cup Series.

This weekend, the 16-Time Most Popular Driver straps into the number 23 IMS Connect Chevy for GMS Racing at Road America in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, only a couple of weeks after son Chase Elliott scored his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win at the road course in Watkins Glen, NY.

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In truth, Elliott does not have the pedigree in the Xfinity Series. He’s been out of NASCAR’s top three series for a number of years, and in 43 starts only has one win. But that doesn’t matter.

Having Bill Elliott entered into this weekend’s race is a boon for the sport. Building on the momentum of his son’s first win, the connections of both Elliott’s first wins being a road courses, the rise in popularity of NASCAR road course racing and the fact that this is an off week for the Cup Series all factor into making this a huge storyline to follow, even if his chances of winning are slim.

Elliott can have a great showing at the Wisconsin road course, however. GMS Racing has proven to produce quality race cars and has shown glimpses of success in the Xfinity Series while being the reigning Champions in the Truck Series and strong contenders to repeat. The team is in the midst of moving up to the Cup Series and has a multitude of talented employees lead by veteran racer Mike Beam.

Oh, and they’ve got Bill Elliott racing for them this week… who is pretty darn Awesome, indeed.

So, this week’s pick to win is an Xfinity Series special with Bill Elliott to win at Road America.



Each week PixelatedSPEED will pick one driver, or team, as the PixelatedPICK. No fantasy rosters, leagues, budgets, or any of that other inflated fantasy stuff... just one driver, win or loose... for the fun of it!  If you've made it this far into the post, thank you. Please consider sharing this content on the interwebs and following PixelatedSPEED on Facebook and Twitter and joining in on the conversation. http://facebook.com/PixelatedSPEED & http://twitter.com/PixelatedSPEED